UK plc has become UK.com
According to 'The Connected Kingdom*', Google's report carried out by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), business on the internet in the UK is currently worth more than £100 billion – or 7% of GDP. That’s a bigger share than transport, construction and utilities, and it’s set to rise to 10% by 2015. We currently have the largest per capita eCommerce market in the world, and we’re the second largest for online advertising spend. When it comes to exporting eCommerce goods and services, the ratio is currently £2.80 coming in to the UK for every £1 going out.
>There’s no doubt that these are significant numbers, and they reflect the UK public’s increasing demand for businesses to make their goods available online. Around 31 million adults have made purchases over the internet so far in 2010, spending an average £1,600 each on clothes, sporting goods, films, music and travel, among other items.
Many of them buy from small and medium-sized enterprises who have realised that they can capitalise on this relatively low-cost, highly efficient way to get their products to market. Those with an active online presence who openly embrace the opportunities to exploit social media as part of their digital strategy have seen sales grow by an average of 43% annually from 2004.
The report also shows that people are more than willing to use their mobile devices (usually an iPhone) to access sites and make purchases. Almost a third of internet users have bought products this way, rising to nearly half of all users aged between 16 and 24. And, described as ‘active and adventuresome’ users by BCG, they appear to be more than happy to extend their shopping experience into the social space.
So the message for businesses is loud and clear. Large or small, retail, wholesale or service-based, it’s a case of, as the report succinctly puts it, ‘adapt…or else’.
It’s no longer a case of ‘thinking about it’ or ‘testing the water’ – you need a digital strategy now if you want to operate successfully in this increasingly significant sector of the UK economy. Our white paper, ‘Planning and managing a digital strategy’, gives you vital information and a valuable toolkit for planning, creating, actualising and evaluating a digital strategy which will enable you to take advantage of the millions of potential customers who are ready and waiting to be sold to. The numbers speak for themselves - you can’t afford to ignore them.
*For a full copy of ‘The Connected Kingdom’, visit connectedkingdom.co.uk
This blog post was written by Steph
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